Korean National Revolutionary Party

The Korean National Revolutionary Party (KNRP) was a left-wing nationalist political party in Korea that was active from 1935 to 1947. The KNRP was founded in exile in Shanghai, China, the first Korean nationalist party to be formed. The party was founded as a grouping of Korean left-wing parties, and the strongest of the founding groups was Kim Won-bong's Heroic Corps, which had about 400 weapons and 1,000 soldiers. The KNRP justified arming the masses for armed resistance in its organ The National Revolution, and it supported armed revolution against Japanese rule. The KNRP military department's leader Ji Cheong-cheon would later split with Kim, with Ji's Manchuria-based faction forming the Korean Liberation Army and Kim leading the KNRP from his base in Nanjing. In 1935, Kim Koo formed the rival Korea Independence Party, which favored diplomacy to guerrilla action and aligned with the United States; the KNRP instead aligned itself with the Soviet Union. Soon, the Korea Independence Party gained more influence with the Kuomintang government of China, coming to dominate the KPG. After World War II, Kim Won-bong urged Kim Il-sung of North Korea to support a united Korea, and the KNRP would dissolve in 1947, with many of its members joining the Workers' Party of Korea before being purged. The KNRP of America, which had provided funds to the group during wartime, was kept under FBI surveillance and forced to leave for North Korea in 1957 by immigration services.